Which cars are most likely to pass and fail their MOT?

If you don't want to stress about your car's MOT, buy Japanese. Latest data from the Vehicle Operator and Services Agency (VOSA), analysed by TootCompare, shows clear wins for Toyota and Honda. Several of their models grabbed top spots, needing no remedial work whatsoever.

The car in front is a Toyota - or Honda

How was the VOSA data crunched? TootCompare focused on 1.2m vehicles registered in 2010 but tested in 2013. The average mileage on the clock of a car taking its first MOT was just over 30,000 miles. However, some care is needed with the numbers.

That's because although the best-ranked car - the Toyota IQ - achieved the highest pass rate at 91.8%, it's a slow seller. Just 2,835 were examined. But a far clearer picture for the highly rated Honda Jazz: it took second place with a pass rate of 90.4% with a tally of 15,411 models. A convincing win.

It's a double celebration for Honda because Honda also grabs third top spot with its SUV model, the CR-V. There were 7,073 MOT tests for the CR-V and a pass rate of 89.8%. Other car models that featured in the top ten were the Lexus IS (4th place), Toyota Yaris (5th place) and the Lexus RX (sixth).

Two Audi models, the Q5 and TT, took seventh and eight spots (pass rates 89.27% and 89.22% respectively) with the Land Rover Freelander in ninth (88.8%) and Suzuki Splash in tenth spot (88%).

German and French blushes

Unfortunately, things were much less rosy for Citroën which took an overall pass rate of 76.1% on 47,802 cars examined. But the absolute worst two individual worst model performers were the Renault Kangoo, with a pass rate of just 63.5% and the closely related Citroën Berlingo, taking a 67.8% pass rate.

Rather more surprising was the performance of VW, sinking into the top Bottom Ten manufacturers list, in ninth spot. Though VW had, by some margin, a much larger pool of vehicles examined (101,922 to Honda's 38,509) it recorded a pass rate of 79.3%.

So much for the reliability of The People's Car. Which?, in the past, has endorsed Honda's strong showing, awarding the Jazz a top Best Buy score. In fairness to VW, several of its Group product (Skoda, Seat) models have also come strongly recommended by Which?

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